Words of Steel
by OrangeLanternPikmin
Summary: The pokemon world of training is a long and difficult process, and I learn that the hard way. Follow me, a runway, cynical, overall douchebag as I try to overcome the difficulties as a trainer and hope I don't get killed in the meantime.
1. Motivation

Authors note for all you wonderful peoples.

Welcome to Words of Steel, the first story I shall behold onto the world. This however is literally my _first_ story to ever be fully written, so expect the best or worst piece of literature you could ever fathom. That being said, I wanted to start this story to really see where it could go, what I could do with it and to have fun writing about a world that basically shaped my childhood. Finally, I own nothing from Pokémon or the respected industries that may or may not be shown in this story.

That is all.

When I was little, I learned about mysterious beings called Pokemon that inhabit our world and possess amazing strength and powers. Humans and pokémon coexist with one another and worked, played and fought together since the beginning of time. And then there were pokémon trainers. People who brought out the true strength and majesty of pokémon, went on adventures around the world and fought against other trainers to see which one was superior in the art of battle. So, of course, I wanted to be a trainer.

Being a child, I was at a bit of a disadvantage when compared to the top brass, with another hindrance being that I didn't have a pokémon. Living in Black City, one of the most industrialized and non-pokémon-friendly places in the region didn't help either, with the only occasional pokémon being rattata and trubbish. I would have been desperate to catch anything I could get my hands on but I was a stubborn child with stubborn limitations. I vowed to catch only the rarest of rare pokémon out there but, once again, I was in no position to make such claims. I rethought my idea of a rare pokémon and learned of the different species out there until finally I decided that my pokémon would be something that was cool and exotic compared when compared to any other starter.

"Dad, I want an axew." He put down the paper and looked at me with the widest eyes I'd ever seen.

I add my parents to my list of hindrances of becoming a trainer after that.

Both my mom and dad were equally discouraging in my want of becoming a Trainer, saying I should become a business man (Like my father) to get a nice job and have a wealthy living. After I was good on funds, I could then become a trainer; even though I was convinced I'd be fifty-something by the time that happened. My mom said I should finish school and be at least a little older, even though I told her it was perfectly natural for ten year olds to become trainers. My dad was more concerned on funds then my dream and always gently rebuffed me when I raised the topic around him. By the time of my eleventh birthday, I realized that I'd get nowhere in my training life if I didn't convince my parents that becoming a trainer was my dream and leave home. I decide that summer that I would leave home and venture out into the wild to find an axew and prove to my parents that I was a good trainer by running the gym circuit and come home with a team of six and a filled badge case. I didn't know exactly how I would find a axew or where I would go once I left home but I always figured it would be better than staying at home for the rest of my life. Fortunately, my constant pleading had left an impression, as that summer, my father announced we were moving to Undella for the month to relax. I allowed myself to be moved and concluded that if I couldn't convince my parents there, I'd simply run away before we went back home. Over that time, I realized that I'd never have a axew if my parents didn't buy one for me, so I once again tempered the idea of my starter until I was satisfied. If I couldn't get a starter that was awesome from the start, I'd catch an ordinary pokémon that I would train like crazy until it was the very definition of awesome.

Once I chose what that pokémon would be of course.

That is, if my parents would let me even _have_ a pokémon.


	2. Plan A

When we arrived at our beach house, I immediately headed to my room and started to formulate my master plan. I would spend nights pacing back and forth, thinking of ways to make it foolproof. Finally, I created plan A. I would try my hardest to convince my parents that I wanted nothing else but to become a trainer or at least try to get one of them on my side so I'd be able to overpower the remaining parent. Afterwards, I'd tell them my starter ideas and try to get an Axew by telling them how awesome of a trainer I could turn out to be and that they could brag that their son had a Haxorus. I would also tell them how much money trainers could earn due to the fact that each time a trainer is defeated, they hand over half their money, so I would be a millionaire by the time I was fourteen (Assuming I won _all_ my battles). Finally, I'd suck up to them as much as possible (I'd lost most of my pride at this point) by telling them things like I would name a pokémon after them, give them half of my winnings each time, come home every month, and would catch anything they wanted if they ever wanted a pokémon. I reveled in the utter brilliance of my plan, assuming that nothing could defy my genius.

Then, my mom and dad swiftly derailed my plan by coming into my room and setting a pokéball on my desk.

Before I could lunge at it to unleash what I blindly hoped would be my starter, my dad quickly told me to sit down and lifted the pokéball above my head.

I plopped down on my bed, too excited to not noticing my father seemingly steeling himself and my mother's uneasy look towards the pokéball.

"Son," he said, sounding serious "We want you to know that you mother and I have been thinking long and hard ever since you told us you wanted to be a trainer." I was busy bouncing on my bed, giddy from knowing that one way or another, I was going to be a trainer thanks to the pokémon I was about to be gifted.

"Your mother and I have both been trainers and we are both very experienced. We know what it's like to raise pokémon. We know what it's like to visit new places and to battle and to be a trainer." He said, holding down my leg to keep me from moving. He could do nothing to dampen my smile though.

"We both know why you want to be a trainer but son," he was looking at me dead in the eyes. "It's not a good idea"

I was momentarily shocked beyond comprehension until my senses came back and really registered what I had heard. I was about to speak but my father held his hand towards my mouth.

"We want you to understand that training is not what it seems. Training is one of the most difficult things you could ever experience and it is _dangerous." _He said, deathly serious.

"The wild; pokémon included, are ruthless to the unprepared. Battling, training, all of it; it's a waste of time, son. You will be overwhelmed by the negatives of training. I guarantee that you will feel the worst amount of hurt in body and mind than in any other profession you can choose. I know it sounds fun but its more trouble than it's worth. You _and_ your pokémon will face tragedies son, and we don't want you to be hurt in that way. We're not trying to scare you away from training, son; we're trying to protect you. Don't become a trainer."

I took the overpowering silence that followed as my turn to speak and tried not to sound overwhelmed by my emotions.

"But dad," I croaked "I _want_ to be a pokémon trainer. I want to go on adventures and have a pokémon team." I was holding back tears. "I want to run the gym circuit and collect badges and, and I can get money! I can earn money and I can give some of my earnings to you guys and catch you guys' pokémon and I can come home often!" I was crying openly now.

"Please. Mom, I can go training right? I promise I'll stay safe." I was allowing my feeling of desperation to show in my voice. I wanted to be a trainer with all my heart and now my dream could be taken away without my own consent.

My mother's face had softened but my father's remained stony. I was hoping my mom would take my side but my dad ruled this argument. And then he pulled out his trump card.

"Son. Look at this."

He pressed the button on the pokéball and a red beam materialized something I instantly recognized as a Cinccino. The thing suddenly let out a startled squeak at me and ran behind my mom's legs. She muttered some comforting words toward it and lowered her arm so it could grasp it.

"This is your mothers Cinccino." For a moment, my father's eyes grew incredibly sad and nostalgic. He pointed his face downward so I wouldn't see him and let out a long, suffering sigh. He looked up, face once again a mask, and continued. "Back when your mother and I were both training together, it was energetic, rowdy and…happy. It can barely function socially when around other people now. All because we were foolish kids who pushed their pokémon to hard."

"But I won't be one of those people!" I cried

"If you give me a chance, I'll show you that I'll be an awesome trainer. I'll have an awesome team, one that obeys me and they'll be the strongest team you've both ever seen! We'll get stronger, dad! I won't let those tragedies happen to me or my pokémon! Just give me a chance!"

At that point, my sobs had over taken me. My father remained icily silent. I was in a shocked state, knowing that my parents were not going to be supportive in my dream and were even threatening to take it away. They were my parents, not my owners. Too paranoid of the pain and the unknown that they had experienced in their past training life that they would shelter me from an invisible threat. If what my father said was true, then why not steel myself for the inevitable in exchange for knowing the true joy and wonder of adventure. But in their eyes, I was a child, a kid throwing a temper-tantrum, a kicked Growlithe masking a sad face to get what it wants. My father saw me that way, and that was the end of it.

"Samuel. Listen to me. You will not become a trainer. End of discussion."

It had been a years since that day and ever since then, I had continued to address my undying want of being a trainer in desperate hope that I might one day change their minds. My father would remain stubbornly against me, over time his impatience growing into anger when our reoccurring arguments became too heated. My mom would have no say in our shouting matches, even when I only confronted her alone with my desperate hope, often retreating to her room or at times, a bottle.

I grew and matured in both body and mind, trying to become or seem 'old' enough for my parents to show them my preparedness against the harsh world they were so desperately trying to shield me from outside of Black city. But they remained fast against my advances, never truly seeing the pain I felt and instead convincing themselves that they were helping me.

Naturally, I rebelled against their wishes and, in all of my available time, would interact with pokémon. We lived in the suburbs of the city, still heavily polluted but not even ten miles away from White forest. I would climb trees and watch Pidove and Sewaddle go about their daily business, give the friendly Patrat and Audino scraps from whatever I brought to eat, and would even resort to waiting around an ally garbage can to see if I could spot a Trubbish. Plenty of times I considered running away, except that was when logic kicked me in the face and reminded me that I was ill prepared to go travel around a region, didn't have a pokémon, and would probably die the first step I took into the wild. So I continued to live with an ill tempered family, went to school and started on plan B: How to start a pokémon journey by yourself.


	3. Salvic

My first instinct or 'step one of plan B' was to get a pokémon so I could at least _have_ a pokémon. After all, what was a pokémon trainer without a pokémon? I was now solidly convinced that I was not getting an Axew as a starter under any circumstances unless it was a blue moon on Friday the thirteenth when all the planets were aligned. Maybe.

I had no problem with catching a less exotic pokémon as a starter, for, my dream had been meddled with far beyond my original idea, that I was ready to go to a random tree, pluck a Pidove from its nest, and announce to the world that I was a trainer until they were convinced I was mad. I restrained myself however and struck inspiration. I would find a pokémon in white forest that I found satisfying to be my starter, and, although only sixteen years old, I was confident that my physical skills would keep me out of trouble. So I gathered my funds and went to buy a massive supply of pokéballs to ensure that none would escape from my capture onslaught (Aka, I bought ten with some money I stole for my mom's wallet and shoved them all in my school backpack).

After traveling deeper into the forest, I came to two conclusions: I had no sense of direction and nothing wanted the honor of being my pokémon. I had moved away from the paths in order to search more pokémon-inhabited places and only succeeded in getting lost. I remained calm and focused on searching for a starter and my luck had led me right into an Elekid. My bad luck caught up however, as right as I through a pokéball at my unsuspecting, soon to be starter, an Electabuzz stood up and was sucked into the device. Before I could compute that I had just caught my starter's mother, the pokéball broke open and unleashed the contents. Said contents turned towards me and tried to kill me with a death glare. It then realized that electricity was more efficient but I was already running by that point. Afterwards, the same results reoccurred two more times with a Shinx and Ralts, with many scrapes and bruises to prove it. It was then that I rethought my approach. To avoid angry parents or evolved monstrosities, I would hunt a prevolved pokémon that seemed mature and strong enough in basic aspects so that way they were able to survive on their own, which meant no other pokémon could get in my way.

It was fool proof enough, except when the pokémon fought back. I lost five more pokéballs that way.

With only two pokéballs left and the sun starting to descend, I was naturally close to giving up, except I was still lost in this god forsaken forest. I could only imagine what it was like for man to catch the first pokémon, desperately trying to secure _something_ so they wouldn't be so defenseless. Or maybe my luck just sucked.

I was climbing up a tree by swinging from branch to branch to try and see if I could see a way back. I was never athletic but spent plenty of time outside, mostly to get out of the house. Nature and pokémon had always fascinated me so much, I couldn't imagine _not_ becoming a trainer. I made it to the top and stood atop the tallest branch without straying too far from the trunk. To the far north, I could make out just the top of Black tower. I decided that my epic journey of trying (and failing) to catch a pokémon had gone on long enough, and I could just try again at a later date. Fate wasn't done torturing me though, as the branch under me groaned from my weight. Startled, I quickly latched my arms around the trunk and shuffled my feet to the thickest part of the branch. The groaning abruptly stopped, calming my nerves, until I realized I had no method of getting down. The trees I climbed were never this tall and most of the time I'd jump. From this height, I was convinced that I'd break something if I simply jumped, making it very hard to make it home and my parents would obviously notice. I slowly inched my butt to the branch to sit, hoping it wouldn't lean, until the groaning came back in full throttle. Before I could react, I heard I very loud snap, and I was suddenly in the airs arms. For better or for worse, I managed to turn my back to the ground to absorb the blows of some branches that slowed my momentum. My backside hit the ground, causing waves of pain all over, but I didn't hear a crack so that was merciful. It certainly hurt though and I swore as I attempted to stand, knowing that I was at least stuck with bad bruising. Fortunately, that could be covered with clothes and a tough smile. The problem was, I had trouble walking with a constant pain in my back and could only pull off a slow walk at most to avoid feeling like my spine was breaking in half. Then that problem evolved into a catastrophe as I realized I was stuck hobbling towards my home that was miles away in a forest filled with carnivorous pokémon minutes before sundown.

My only hope of survival was that any predators would take pity on something as pathetic as me. The sun had gone down completely and the sky's template was replaced with black space and glistening stars. I had found the path before sundown and was hopefully still following it back towards black city. Even in the suburbs, the neon theme of the city was still evident, so the lack of light other than the stars worried me greatly. My back remained sore and pained me if I tried to stand strait. Two times I had to book it away from wild Luxray, ignoring my body's signals of pain that I was abusing it. This certainly was not what I had expected when venturing out to get a starter. True, I had expected some misfortune but not the entire operation to come crashing down on my head. Some greater form or deity out there certainly had it out for me. Maybe the world (or fate) just didn't want me to be a trainer.

I stopped all movement when I heard a rustling noise towards my left. I slowly glanced over to see patches of bushes shaking in the darkness. I quietly motioned around to try and see the cause of the disturbance, but right as I could make out a miniature figure, it was hidden by the foliage and the rustling promptly stopped.

"Hello? Who's there?"

I hastily covered my mouth as all I would accomplish by talking was giving away my position to this unknown threat. I had no mobility, leaving stealth as my only weapon. The rustling noises didn't start up again, meaning that the creature had not heard me or was neutral to my current physical state. Still covering my mouth, I slowly made my way down the path away from where the noise had come from. Suddenly, something extremely hard clashed against my back, causing great agony. I cried out and fell to the ground hunched over, biting my tongue to distract me from the pain. I pathetically flopped over to see my attacker but it had darted over towards my front, smashing into my chest. I fell to the ground with my wind knocked out, stunning me, while the creature let out a screech that sounded like scratching metal. While it further incapacitated me, it sounded more like a battle cry then an attack. I saw a figure jump into the air, blades in both its hands illuminated in the starlight and pointed at my chest. I rolled out of the way right as it came crashing down on the spot I was downed, gaining a second wind all the while. Desperate for some sort of attack, I grabbed handfuls of dirt and mud and flung it at the creature. It raised its arms in a vain way to block the onslaught, once again screeching at me. I reached into my backpack to see if there was a sort of hard surfaced object to throw and found something spherical. I flung it as hard as I could, only to vainly realize that I had just thrown a pokéball. To my and attackers surprise, it was sucked inside upon impact. I raised my arms around my body, attempting to block the attack that I knew it would launch right as it broke out. It never came though and right as I lowered my defenses to see what was happening, I heard a sharp 'ding!' sound and flinched violently. When I regained the courage of lowering my defenses once again, I looked and saw my pokéball sitting in the clearing, the creature nowhere to be seen. It took a few seconds to register that the thing was _inside_ the pokéball. I hastily picked it up, careful not to push the release button, and stared through the clear red top at the figure struggling inside.

I had just caught a pokémon that had tried to kill me as my starter.

I had just caught a pokémon.

To my surprise, the pokémon I had caught was a Pawniard. It was strange because I had read about Pawniard when I was little and making my list of starters. They hunted in packs of no fewer than ten and always had a Bisharp leader following close behind to finish of their prey. I had been taken for prey last night, so why had I not been killed? Furthermore, that Pawniard was too skilled to be an infant, so why was it on its own? Unless infants were already trained to kill things by the time they're hatched, I had come across an apparent rouge Pawniard. My first instinct after I got a proper check up from nurse joy and found out it was male, was to get rid of him. He had tried to kill and eat me, fairs fair. And what was to stop him from doing it again? One slit of my throat and he'd be free and I'd be dead. All his problems would be solved and he could go back to living in the forest. Another weird aspect of it all was that Pawniard weren't even native to white forest. They lived almost half way across the region near Opelucid city.

I had also gotten a check up from nurse joy when she noticed the hunch in my back and diagnosed that some bones in my spine had been misplaced from physical damage, enabling me from standing strait. Right as I was about to panic from knowing that I'd get an unwilling operation, nurse joy and her Audino assistant put me under sedatives, placed me face down on a bed and punched my spine back in place. I don't think they actually punched my back (It's very hard to see with your face to the floor) although it felt like it. I left the pokécenter feeling right as rain though, and thanked them for not charging me afterwards.

That being said, I was still stuck with a homicidal pokémon, my starter as well. I never maximized his pokéball when the red top became see-through. He always glared at me from under his helmet like head, never doing anything but that. I was scared to release him in front of me, for that would just give him all the chance he needed to harm me and if I hastily put him in a closet or room, it would be no different than keeping him in his pokéball. For some reason, I couldn't find myself to release the little guy (Pawniard are only two feet tall. I'm not sure if that makes them cute or scarier). He had been the first pokémon I had ever successfully captured, and, besides, he was a pokémon! The whole point was to train _pokémon_! I'd read about other trainers train equally dangerous pokémon that listened without rejection and won them countless matches. Plus, Pawniard were pretty awesome pokémon, basically living weapons in the form of blades. It was the perfect challenge to raise something like that, and was my duty as a trainer. So I released my starter… and quickly slammed the closet door on him. In hindsight, it wasn't the nicest thing to do but I was cautious of random attacks and slowly opened the door, only, to my surprise; he was simply standing there without a hint of malice. I opened the door wider and he stepped out into my room, glaring up at me once he reached a respectable (and safe) distance. This I had not been expecting and apparently he read my confused look, for he rolled his eyes and then put his bladed hands behind his back to basically show he meant no harm. I smiled a bit at this and sat down, his eyes completely focused on me.

"Alright! Uh… Pawniard, I'm your new trainer" to add on to my current surprise, he nodded in response to this.

"Wow! Uh. Okay." I said, more than shocked. "Anyways, yes! I am your new trainer and you have the honor of being my first pokémon." He gave me a death glare to that.

"Alright, doesn't like jokes… anyways, as my pokémon, you will earn us wealth, fame and glory in the name of our team and we'll kick anyone's ass that stands in our way. We'll travel around the region defeat gym leaders, earn a fortune and basically just go on an adventure," I said, determination showing.

"You'll be the leader of the strongest team to ever walk across the land of unova. We'll show anyone that defies us that we can be, no! That we _are_ great trainers. So starting now we're partners!" I looked down at him, huffing with excitement, to see his blank, unamused expression.

My smile damped a little and my breathing calmed. So maybe I had gone a bit off the far end.

He then cocked his head to the side and gave me a look saying, "_What's in it for me?"_

I was a bit taken aback by this, thinking his inspiration would come from the speech that was basically my dream to become my pokémon.

"Well, you could get stronger." I said idly. I then saw that I struck a sweet spot by reading his eyes and quickly picked up on it. "Listen, out there are a multitude of people who'll be trainers just like us. Those trainers also have pokémon and they'll try to prove that they're stronger than us. Think about it. Us coming out on top as the stronger trainer. And there'll be even stronger trainers out there! We can't be the strongest without facing a number of challenges that will just make us even stronger. Think about being the strongest Pawniard or even pokémon out there. And you know what? If you get stronger, you'll be able to evolve into a Bisharp."

His eyes became immensely large but he quickly contained himself and simply nodded.

"Right. You need a name then." I said, suddenly feeling incredibly proud.

"How about…Salvic."

He remained still for a moment and then nodded once again.

"Right then. Partners?" I said, extending my hand down towards him.

He uncrossed his arms behind his back and put his hand in mine and we shook.

Then I cut my hand on his hand blade and had to run back to the pokécenter to get stitches.


	4. Journey of Monsters

Authors note: Thanks to Farla for reviewing and giving critical advice about the story's writing and story development. If you have any advice to improve or complaints about the story, feel free to leave a comment.

After thanking the nurse once again for not charging me, I painstakingly noted that I had no way to conceal my wound from the prying eye, namely my parents. I never owned gloves, even when winter came and it wouldn't really seem logical to wear them now unless I was concealing something. I settled on wrapping my hand with a bandage, adopting the cover story of cutting my hand on my desk or drawer. It honestly wasn't that better from just showing my stitches but at least it looked tamer. I headed back to my room afterwards, having the house to myself that day, and noticed him sitting on my bed, holding his pokéball between his arms. I was still uneasy about my accidently caught starter but not because he had injured me, for that was the result of my own stupidity. What bothered me was I had been seen as a useless victim one night ago and was now seen as a friend or even master. All I had done for Salvic in the time span we had know each other was capture him from his apparent home and thrown dirt in his face, which I was pretty sure he would be holding a grudge about. It could be his pretty enthusiastic nature about becoming stronger that made him civilized as a caught pokémon but that had come out of nowhere and his entire accepting attitude about things could just be a ruse so he could kill me for revenge. He had had plenty of perfect opportunities to do so however so maybe his motivation to become stronger _was_ real but he was using me to simply take him places and give him opponents. He noticed my arrival and jumped down, once again folding his arms behind his back. I simply waved at him and headed to my desk to write. Step one of plan B was complete, and I now had to figure out a way to begin my adventure. Leaving home would be the easy part, for it was simple to just _leave_ and I could just take all nonperishable food we owned and most of the cash my parents had on hand (I'm sure they could get more). The hard part was actually multiple problems, the first being I had no trainer license. I was now legal age to acquire a driving license, so bagging a training one would be simply, especially since I could get one without my parents having to legally be required to know. The next problem was that for a newbie like me to start the gym circuit, I had to travel to Aspertia city where the first leader resided and it was quiet far to the east. I deduced that the easiest way to get there was to go overseas. Boats from Undella regularly left to Castelia city, and from there ferries could travel towards the port city of Virbank. Virbank was on the same inland as Aspertia so I could simply walk from there. Tickets went for at least two hundred bucks though, and the trainer discount wasn't enough to sculpt it down to an affordable price. I was already stealing money from my parents, so I didn't feel too guilty about thinking about stealing more from other people or just stowing away for a free ride. I just had to acquire a gym badge so I could officially become a trainer by league rules.

I noticed Salvic climbing up my desk and sitting down next to my paper. I idly wondered if he could understand or at least read English while I was writing. I had once read a story about a French speaking gallade. The odd thing was, he could understand and speak perfect French but other pokémon couldn't understand him when he spoke to them. That implied that pokémon either spoke some kind of variant of French in pokémon or pokémon never had their own language to begin with and copied humans. Or maybe humans copied pokémon. History also told of people who could understand what any pokémon said to them, including a gym leader.

I finished my note and turned to get my bag. Now was the best time to leave if any and besides, I was done here. Call me an idiot, but I had never succeeded in any of my classes beyond a passing grade, never had any friends that I could really relate to (most of them had pokémon, which left me in an envious position) and I really wasn't cut out to be a business man anyways. I felt a little bad for abandoning my parents, especially since I was an only child, but they had tried to rule my life without compassion to my dreams. I grabbed all the necessities and a few pairs of extra cloths. I didn't plan on taking too much, for that would weigh me down and I could always restock on supplies in the cities and towns. I finished my packing, plucked Salvic's pokéball from my bed and returned him, and went on my way.

"So, uh, how long will this take?"

I was sitting in front of a desk in a cubical, waiting for the technician to respond. I had come into the building hoping to just get my picture taken, receive a card and then go on my merry way. Instead, I was shoved a pile of paperwork that required me to write my name, age, gender, race, starter pokémon, reasons for wanting to be a trainer and if I was going to collect the gym badges. Afterwards, the papers were collected and faxed and I was led to my current predicament.

"Mr. Card, please be patient." He responded. I had asked two times before that but you could understand why my patience was thinning. "I already told you that this process requires at least ten minutes to be properly carried out."

"Could you at least tell me what you're doing? There isn't anything I need to know, is there?"

"Not anything I can think of, no. As for your former question, we are simply entering the information you have provided us and sending it throughout the region."

"The _region_? Why? Who's it going to?"

"Mr. Card, _please_. We are giving your info to our _trusted_ collegeagues so we can keep a distinguished watch on trainers who travel into places they or we are not familiar with so we can identify them in case of any danger. This is all for the means of your safety so please, be patient."

I sunk into my seat and reached into my pocket to withdraw Salvic's ball. It was minimized, and I idly rolled it over my stomach. Suddenly a flash came over my face that had me shoot up and made my eyes distorted as I tried to adjust back to the normal lighting.

"Wait, hold on! What the hell was that?" I scrubbed at my eyes to try and get them to stop showing me red dots dancing across my vision.

My assistant put down a small device that looked nothing like a camera but apparently acted like one and turned back to typing on his computer.

"I just had to take a picture for your trainer card. No harm was done."

"You could have warned me, you know! I can't see crap now! I don't even think that was a good picture anyways."

The technician coolly turned his monitor towards me and showed me a simple picture of my face. The flash had turned my eyes red though.

"…Alright. But you honestly could have told me to at least say cheese."

"You want this to go as fast as possible Mr. Card, so I am simply respecting your wishes." He said right as he finished typing and turned towards a printer and retrieved a plastic card. My trainers' license.

"Here you are." He said, handing me the card. "Now, from the info you've provided us, this is apparently your first time training and I would like to go over some ground rules."

"Since when were you a trainer? You have a job in a freaking cubical."

He gave me an attempted death glare that I just smiled sweetly to.

"I suppose I don't look as old as I really am, but that is no excuse for this behavior." He said, still attempting a death glare. I remained undeterred and he gave up with a small sigh.

"I became a trainer when I was thirteen and I'm now thirty six. I had plenty of time to travel for an adequate amount of time before returning to school." He said, his eyes a bit friendlier.

"What made you want to give up training for something like this?" I asked, gesturing to the small office and artificial lights.

"My parents were…concerned about my future profession. They didn't want me to be absorbed in traveling forever, since I never really tried to collect the gym badges. Put simply, they wanted me to quit. So, I came home, resumed school, and, despite working conditions, got this well-paying job. I still own my old starter and he's completely fine with becoming a domesticated house pokémon."

"Wait, you only came home because you parents wanted you to? Are you sure you should have let them control your life like that?"

"They would have let me continue to be a trainer if I wished. Like I said, they were simply concerned that I wasn't very absorbed in training enough to make it a living. But if that's enough proof for you, I can continue my job by giving you advice that I guarantee will help in your journey."

"Fine, shoot."

"Don't push yourself and your team beyond anything they can handle. Value your pokémon above all else if you're serious about this- They're your friends, your partners and your family. Don't be squeamish when it comes to survival. Wear material that won't rip or ruin easily and invest in boots if you like having feeling in your feet. Always carry a phone for situations you can't handle. And if you can, get a traveling buddy. Spend a fair amount of time with just your starter; catching a full team of six when starting out will overwhelm you."

"Is that all, grand master of training?"

"What do you want me to say? To just go outside, catch a random pokémon and then suddenly become a trainer?" I shrunk as low in my seat as possible. He eyed this with suspicion but then seemingly dismissed it.

"Sorry. I just… I've wanted to be a trainer for a while and now that I can actually _be_ one, I just want to get going, you know?"

"Yes, yes I do know that feeling. I suppose I should apologize as well for being so judgmental towards you and losing my professionalism. Anyways, your training card is used as basic identity to any source. And take this" He wheeled his chair around to a locked compartment and unlocked it, taking out a small, rectangle shaped device. "This is your pokédex. Use it on any pokemon you don't know by simply capturing it to learn its data. Simple as that. And that's everything I'm required to give you. Good luck out there Mr. Card."

"Thank you. And you can call me Sam."

"Well, too late now" He said in good natured tone.

I had left black city and its neighboring forest behind, walking along route 14 towards undella. Upon leaving civilization, I had also let Salvic out from his ball and he immediately readjusted to the wild by rushing into the surrounding woodland. I became immediately concerned but he always stayed within sight or usually came back, more often than not with literal blood on his hands. He would go hunting mostly small things such as swablu and jigglypuff; I knew this because for some odd reason, he would drag his kill behind him until I had noticed and then plop it at my feet as some sort of offering. I didn't exactly know how to interpret this, unless it was his way of asking if I was hungry. It was around his fourth attempt at bringing me a bloodied swablu with several stab wounds that I ran over to a nearby river to throw up, only to have Salvic save me from an incredibly pissed off golduck that left us both drenched. He kept his meals to himself after that. Even after that unpleasant experience, I knew that I'd have to live off the land at some point of my training life, probably on some of the more extreme and longer routes. I decided to buy some sort of survival type book upon reaching undella so I could have some minimalistic chance at staying alive. In the meantime, Salvic was being more or less helpful in keeping us alive. I never really found out how strong he was when I first caught him but for a pokémon whose species depend on each other for catching prey, he seemed very skilled as an individual. Instead of the quick and repeated strikes used to weaken targets, he preferred to use a strong and simple slash to the jugular. It calmed me that Salvic wasn't very sadistic when fighting, but the dark typing was still evident. Unfortunately, that also led to a sort of superiority complex, as he picked a fight with nearly every pokémon we encountered; that led to some nasty run ins with mienfoo and altaria and while the latter didn't have a type advantage over steel, the former _certainly_ did. I had to carry my pawniard away from those fights; all the while dodging the attacks of a pokémon that's type was fighting and trying to avoid cutting myself on Salvic's ribcage. Once we had traveled farther into the misty route, we started to encounter rarer and stronger pokémon. I had realized a grave mistake on my part after Salvic took a nasty blow to the arm from an absol; I had forgotten to stock on healing items for my pokémon. He managed to beat it with repeated metal claws, but I convinced him to stay by my side and stop fighting until we could get medical attention. He bitterly obliged, still protecting us from wild pokémon but now preferring to scare opponents away then fight them. I had left that day late in the afternoon and twilight was starting to diminish fast, making me vainly admit that we would have to wait till morning to get to Undella. We could have been not fifthteen miles away with the distance we covered but I had learned my lesson in traveling in the dark. I found a small clearing to make camp and began to gather kindling to make a fire. I had brought along matches and, though I wanted to use them sparingly, dug them out from the far corner of my duffel bag. Right when I was about to light it though, Salvic continued to prove his worth be walking over to the gathered pile of kindling and striking his blades together that caused sparks to fly off. Before long, embers had formed and the fire had a nice start. I marveled a bit at his knowledge before returning to my duties of setting camp. I unraveled my sleeping bag, hoping to be an early bird so we could arrive at Undella at a good time. I looked over at Salvic and saw him dragging another dead swablu into our campsite and then grabbing a stick from the ground. I trusted him to his own devices and continued to set up proper bedding, looking up when I heard a sick kind of plunging noise. I looked over to see Salvic sticking his now sharpened stick through his meal and placing it next to the fire. He then came over to me and looked towards me and then pointed to his swablu-on-a-stick. I was confused at first, until he mock imitated me by holding the swablu over the fire and began to roast it, then quickly set it down and pointed towards me and then the food. I summarized that he wanted me to cook it for him, although I didn't really know how to cook a pokémon or if a bird was healthy to eat. He was also much more skilled in survival skills then me, and could honestly just cook it himself. I was subdued by Salvic explaining in a rather crude drawing in the dirt that he was afraid of fire. It was a bit adorable actually. He must have had the power to read minds though for he didn't show any sign of weakness or begging in his eyes, instead having an expecting and stern face. I spent fifteen minutes or so hunched over a fire cooking the swablu, thinking of how Salvic's life was before we met. He was mature to say the least, and knew how to make a living by himself. He also knew how to fight and kill, admittedly well and for an unknown reason didn't live in a colony or natural habitat of other pawniard. He had been lost in thought that I didn't notice that the swablu was currently on fire and Salvic had gave up on tugging on my sleeve and was now hitting me with the flat sides of his swords. I hastily pulled back the burning bird and tried to extinguish the flames with rapid blowing. By the time it worked, Salvic's dinner was black, shriveled up and smelled something fierce.

"Opps. Uh, sorry about this Salvic." I apologized nervously, trying to make light of it by smiling.

My starter said nothing, instead swiping the stick from my hands, gave me a glare for good measure, and began to cut the burnt swablu for the edible parts. I ended up not getting any, which was actually a bit of a blessing, and instead chowed down on a jar of peanut butter as my dinner. After our respective meals were finished, I started to get settled into my sleeping bag by plopping it against a tree. I looked over at Salvic and could tell that both of us didn't know what to do with each other. I tried to casually open up my sleeping bag to see if he wanted to be invited in. I received a cold glare in response and Salvic instead made a little spread by the base of a tree on the other side of the fire. I acknowledged that it was better than being abandoned in the middle of the night by my only pokémon and considered this a step forward in our relationship. Then, I managed to take several steps back by losing Salvic's trust and half of my money.


	5. Forgiveness is a tribute of the strong

I woke up to an early grey sky and rays of sunlight piercing the treetops, along with some sort of scraping noise. I would have been in more of a hurry to get up, only I was stiff from the waist up from the awkward position I had slept in last night and now I was afraid my neck would snap if I made the slightest twitch. I looked around with my eyes and noticed that Salvic was already up; for how long, I didn't know, and was making what appeared to be a fortification of our circular clearing by sticking stakes, that he respectively sharpened himself, into the ground. He had finished right as I woke up and sat down, grabing a pair of small stones and running his blades along them, trying to sharpen them. He turned towards me once he heard my grunts at failed attempts to delicately get out of my current predicament without pulling a muscle and stood still, staring at me, until I managed to stand. He then pointed his blade at me and then towards his barricade, looking back at me and expecting approval.

"Um. Yeah. Good job Salvic." I replied, a little uncertain. It wasn't like I asked him to do it.

That was apparently good enough for him though, as he nodded in response, turned and hopped into a tree to another and made way into the forest. I simply assumed he was going to hunt and turned to the fire to start tending to it again, only to see that it had gone out completely overnight. I shrugged an 'oh well' and began to pack my sleeping bag. I was determined to make it to Undella by today and still have some light to find out info about ferry departure times and fees. I finished and lay back against a tree, waiting for Salvic to come back and letting my mind wonder. I let my thoughts bring up the topic of my starter and settled on why he didn't speak. True, he wasn't mute, for when we were traveling or battling, he would emit cries or grunts of anguish, cheer, frustration and satisfaction. He never spoke outside of those ranges though and I rarely heard him speak his name (pawniard that is). Perhaps he knew that I couldn't understand him and just didn't bother, although I had once insisted he start speaking regularly so I could attempt to learn or at the least understand his native tongue. Instead, our conversations consisted of him making obvious gestures and me saying a quick response. Afterwards, we would lapse into silence, which was fine for the both of us. We didn't have anything to talk to each other about anyways.

I heard rustling in the grass and looked up to see Salvic dragging his newest kill into our makeshift fort, a plump audino. I had him start up the fire to cook his breakfast and I dug through the corners of my bag for something to fast me for the morning and afterwards, still not comfortable with the thought of eating a pokémon from scratch. I knew that I would at least have to try it early on in my journey so I could get accustomed to surviving on pokémon and took comfort in knowing that Salvic could at least do the dirty work. He once again made me cook his meal for him, this time not losing focus and pulling back when Salvic told me too and toyed with the idea of a pawniard preferring to cook his food, yet was afraid of fire and came from a species that ate its prey raw. We both ate in silence, taking glimpses at one another and I noted that he was only eating selective parts of the audino and leaving the rest alone. I didn't exactly know what parts of a pokémon you were supposed to eat and leave out but Salvic certainly did, which made me once again marvel at his knowledge. There was a lot of mystery to Salvic but I didn't concern myself with his past and he didn't seem to think of it to be that important to tell me. Guessing someone's life story through charades didn't sound very enjoyable either_._ We finished our breakfast and stamped out the embers of our fire, leaving the stakes as a memento and because it would be too much of a hassle to dig up all of Salvic's work. I only delayed from leaving one more time to check on Salvic's arm wound. It looked fairly healed and he simply nodded when asked if he was okay. With that, we set off into the big, bad world once again.

Salvic was allowed to fight once more and gave resounding duels to every pokémon we encountered. He had grown enough sense to avoid the pokémon with more experience or a type advantage and stayed close and alert at all times, which marked one worry off my list. We progressed fairly quickly, following the route path until; finally, we breached the undergrowth and came across a beach to the sea, Undella town distantly visible across the body of water along with a legion of boats varying in size and shape. My breath gave away at the sight and I quickly inhaled, the pungent but refreshing smell of the ocean filling my nostrils. I jumped off the low ledge we were standing on and nearly losing my balance from landing on the course sand, up righting myself before falling. I heard Salvic land next to me, somehow keeping his balance. From there, we simply walked along the beach towards the ever evident town. It was nostalgic to see Undella again, though on different circumstances, and remembered my constant begging to my parents to catch a wingull instead of swimming when we went to the beach. That vacation had been icily ruined by our clashing feelings but it had its moments.

The sun was progressing to late afternoon and I ushered ourselves to pick up our pace, offering to return Salvic so I could technically carry him, though a glare that clearly said "I can keep up" kept him out. As we speed walked along the beach, we started to get into more civilized areas; we knew we were no longer in the harsh wild, coming across the average beach house or group of people having vacations. Salvic glared at them distrustfully if they or we walked too close, much to my chagrin, as it led to some awkward moments between the people we encountered, especially if they had pokémon. I would have to drag my aggressive, yet chivalrous, pawniard away by that point, not wanting to be distracted from our main goal. Of course, if our would-be opponent started throwing insults towards Salvic or me, we would kindly accept their challenge, kick their ego to the curb in battle and thank them for the funds afterwards. Call us hypocrites for stooping as low as them but hey, we had to earn money _somehow._ We attracted most of the trainers on the beach after that and, somehow, managed to defeat everyone who wanted a swing at us. It was during that time that I learned most of Salvic's battle style. Like I had said, he never tried to wear down his opponent, instead using moves and methods that would hurt most. He was also as fast as he was strong, one time taking down a frillish with a faint attack that was so quick, it looked as if the trainer had released a fainted pokémon. Then there was his glorious steel typing, a tribute that made him neigh invulnerable to the common attack. His blade like ribcage also helped in keeping pokémon that normally fought up close cautious in their attacks for they could hardly touch Salvic without getting cut. Battling was more time consuming then I thought though, as I vainly noticed that it had become early twilight and it would probably take the rest of the day to get into town. Salvic was another priority, as he had taken a few hits in his battles and probably needed to be healed up. We had at least gained a large amount of money and would probably have leftovers after we secured a boat ride. At least, that's what would have happened until I was challenged for half my money.

I had gotten to the borderline separating the beach and the town and was ready to retire for today. I had barely enough light or energy left in the day to get a ticket and the rest of my time would be better well spent setting up a plan for tomorrow then stumbling around in the darkness. Right as I was about to head up the beach's pavement steps to town, my path was literally blocked by a man with a rugged face and ripped jeans. If it weren't for his slightly normal and clean looking t-shirt and hair, I would have been convinced that he was a criminal of some sort. Although I wasn't far off.

"Hey, kid." It sounded more like he was trying to threaten me than greet me. I didn't want to deal with someone like him, especially since he was trying to act tough yet was shorter than me. I wasn't the tallest guy around but I was defiantly above average.

"Yes? How can I help you?" I said, hoping that this wouldn't lead to a battle. Salvic was exhausted and I didn't want to shove him into anything he couldn't handle, even with his strength.

"You know what I want." He said in a deep, sort of gravelly voice. He pulled a pokéball from his jeans pocket and idly tossed it from the air to his palm.

"Yeah, thought so." I muttered to myself. "Sorry mister, I'm cool with a battle and all but my only pokémon here is really tired and wouldn't be up to fight right now, so-"

"Why do think I asked you in the first place?" he interrupted. My opinion of this man sunk lower in my mind. At least he was honest. I wanted to get out of this without conflict but couldn't resist allowing some hostility in my voice.

"Look dude, this seriously wouldn't be fair. An igglybuff could take him out in the state he's in." This caused Salvic's eyes to flare up a bit but I ignored him.

"I looked you in the eyes. I'm lookin' you in the eyes right now. You know the rules of being a trainer. Either accept my challenge or cough up half of that wad of cash you got."

This creeper had been stalking me! Waiting for me to beat the competition only to swoop in and steal the prize right in front of our noses. This made me even more desperate to get out of this situation. I was getting angry at this guy and people are known to do incredibly stupid stuff when they get angry. I knew that either way, I was going to have to either lose my pride as a trainer and give him half of the money I had earned or lose Salvic's trust by forcing him to battle so we could at least go down kicking and screaming. Of course I could always run but he would have the law on his side then for my act of avoiding debt, and honestly, I didn't need the law after me; being a runaway was bad enough on my record. Truthfully though, who would the law side with anyways; a sweet innocent kid who was just trying to be a trainer or a guy who looked like he already had a mugshot.

I stayed silent for a while, with both Salvic's and the man's scowls focused on me. There was no peaceful way out of this without having to lose something on our part. The most distressing part was that I knew that Salvic and I could kick this guy's ass any other day of the week.

"Please don't act like this. This isn't even a fair fight for crying out loud. There's a pokécenter right up the road; let me heal up my pawniard and then we can battle like civilized people. I guarantee that if you beat me, it will taste even sweeter. Sound good?"

"Okay kid, I'm done playin' around. You either hand over your dough or we're gonna have a serious problem." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him pull out another pokéball from his back pocket.

Before I could question on how that would change the odds in his favor, Salvic struck out at the man's hand that was juggling the first pokéball, causing him to drop both and caress the small cut wound with his other hand, cursing all the while. The first pokéball released its contents when it hit the hard pavement, while the other thankfully landed in a blot of sand and stayed sealed. A staryu came out and immediately noticed its trainer's situation, retaliating at us with bursts of water fired from its core. Salvic successfully dodged the stream; me, not so lucky, and hit back at the staryu with a faint attack. It went on like that, Salvic taking the battle into his own hands, dodging the water blasts and getting as many hits as possible before retreating, me just stupidly watching and silently rooting for him, and the man attempting to retrieve his second pokéball but dropping it once again when he got sand in his wound. Unfortunately, the second ball landed on the solid road this time, which had managed to release itself, right as Salvic managed to knock out the staryu. I was feeling confident about the battle, until the flash of the pokéball whore off and I saw a magby standing in its place.

I knew that Salvic was afraid of fire and began to worry that he would lock up at the sight of a fire type but apparently he didn't let that rattle him as he charged at the magby and knocked it to the ground, using a metal claw while he was still on top of it. He quickly recoiled away before it could retaliate with anything but then suddenly dropped down to one knee, clutching the blade he had slashed with. He had been burned badly and I realized that the magby's body must have measured over four hundred degrees as I felt the heat suddenly intensify. The magby didn't give us a chance to recover, as its trainer yelled the order for a flame burst and my starter was hit by it right as he managed to look up, causing a small explosion of fire. By the time the small flame blast wore off, Salvic was laying face down in the sand with blotches of glass surrounding him. I stood stunned over my downed pokémon and sunk to my knees to check his condition; I had never thought I'd see Salvic in such a defeated and helpless position and heard the numb sounds of the man returning his magby and sauntering over to me on my knees, trying to assess the seriousness of the damage and burn marks on Salvic's body.

"You're lucky I'm not thinkin' about charging you for assault." He said, still rubbing his wounded hand. He was lucky that he didn't need stitches for that.

"You lost. Now give me my money." He said with menace.

I was too upset to count how much I owed him and simply took out what seemed like half of what I had from my wallet and shoved it into his waiting hand. I returned Salvic and walked past the man into the town of villas, heading straight towards the pokécenter. I had failed in my duty as a trainer, even if it was by Salvic's choice to fight; I had no control over his actions and that had led to our defeat. I walked up to the desk, quietly explained my pokémon's condition to the nurse joy and let her take his ball to assess the damage. I went over to the waiting areas couches and pulled out my wallet, appraising the damage to my funds. I was left with four hundred fifty two in pure cash and bitterly hoped that my defeater was getting mugged right now. True, it wouldn't be in the hands of someone better, maybe even worse, but it would at least make me feel better.

I then realized that being angry would get me nowhere. I had no reason to hold a grudge against that man; Okay, well, I did, but how would I be portrayed if I stooped down to his level and steal back from a innocent bystander…Okay, so _he_ wasn't very innocent but I had planned to steal from civilians to help pay for my journey. But I certainly wouldn't steal from the weak or defenseless. Anyways, holding a grudge would be worthless to me. It wouldn't get back my money, could potentially villanize me if it got out of hand and wouldn't make me any better from my offender. The best thing I could do now was move on. I tried to diminish my anger further by concentrating on other things. I then only just realized how dirty my clothes were as I was sitting there and also noticed that the battle had diminished the twilight to evening. I would have to ask the nurse joy if there were lodging rooms and a wash station available for use.

"Whoever owns a pawniard? Its wounds have been treated!" the nurse joy called out. I got up from my seat and glared at a scruffy looking guy who backed away in his walk towards the desk with a nervous grin. I retrieved Salvic's ball and asked my question, which was met with a positive response. She gave me a key for a room that would be mine for a minimum of a week and I decided to head there first to drop of my stuff and get changed.

My first reaction to seeing a real bed was to drop everything and fling myself at it to marvel how soft it was. I didn't hate the wild, far from it, but right now I simply relished in the divine softness this bed delivered. It took every ounce of my willpower to get up and start unpacking for the night to prioritize. I needed to eat something proper, for I hadn't eaten any meals the entire day, instead using up all the snack food as my breakfast, lunch and dinner, giving me the need to also restock on food and grab some kind of nonperishable meal type subsistence so I wouldn't have to rely on dead pokémon to give me energy. I needed a plan for getting to Virbank, so I'd have to check on fees and departure times for the boats that traveled those routes. Then there was always the option to travel by pokémon, which did cost less, but at times was slower and more dangerous. A change of clothes wasn't exactly necessary but Salvic had ripped my favorite turtle neck, so picking up some spare t-shirts would help so I could avoid damaging the clothes I _wanted_ to wear. Picking up a pair of boots wouldn't hurt either. I planned to not make the same mistake I did when leaving home and firmly planted in my mind the need for medical supplies, for both me and Salvic. All that aside, entertainment was also a main issue. I had left most of my personal possessions at home as a memento for my parents and because I wouldn't have any real use for them in the wild. My MP3 player was among those items, which only left my phone, which had a terrible battery that I reserved for emergency calls, which haven't been necessary yet. I also used it much less due to my friends and family constantly texting me, asking where I was, why I was doing this, I should come back and that I was an idiot. I refused to answer any calls from them and didn't really like reading their texts; it made me feel bad and feel homesick. The only kind of entertainment I could think of that wouldn't ruin easily or wasn't electronic were books, which I was fine with. I had read nearly every novel, piece of fiction and even biographies that concerned pokémon at a young age.

I finished my thinking and decided on taking care of those problems tomorrow and just relax for tonight. I also wanted to take a shower to get the filth off me, only to remember that Salvic was just as dirty as I was, if not dirtier. I released him; only for my starter to nearly take off my head with a leaping swipe. I crashed to the ground in an effort to dodge, feeling the familiar sting in my backside and looked at Salvic with watery eyes, while he glared down at me from atop the bed. He didn't try to attack me again and I concluded that it was just a scare tactic to get me to the ground; but why? He hopped off the bed and hit my head with the flat side of his blade, causing me to sit up and have my hands fly towards the bruise.

"Ow! Salvic, what the hell was that for?!" I asked, trying to uphold authority while loose tears trickled down my face. He was not intimidated and walked in front of me, glaring me down.

"…What? Salvic, is something wrong?"

He nodded in confirmation. So something was bothering Salvic to the point that he wanted to hurt or at least intimidate me. I had three guesses as to where it came from.

"Look, Salvic, I know your upset at that guy but it's useless to-"

He interrupted me by pressing the flat side of his blade against my lips. The feeling of the cold steel startled me, especially since I could taste traces of blood, but at least he didn't try to cut me. He removed his hand-blade and once again remained motionless, leaving me to guess why he had done that.

"Salvic, something is upsetting you, right?"

He nodded.

"It has to do with the battle we had with that jerk, right?"

He gave me another nod. So I had been on the right track, except the man wasn't the main problem.

"You're not mad at the man himself." I stated. He nodded in affirmation.

"Then who's to blame here? The magby?"

He shook his head this time.

"Is it the staryu?" He shook his head again. It was a stupid guess anyways.

"Well, it's not from anyone we battled earlier than that." I thought out loud and Salvic nodded in agreement. I was starting to get frustrated from all this guess and check when suddenly I got a shock of thought.

"Salvic, are you mad at yourself?" I thought I had hit the nail on the head but I had apparently missed by a mile in my guess when Salvic's patience wore thin and he pointed at me with an angry glare.

"You're mad at me?" I asked with stupor. There was logic to be mad at me but I had thought I'd be the last person on Salvic's anger management list for today.

"Can I ask why you're mad at me?"

He gave me a defeated stare at the expense of my own stupidity.

"Okay sorry, that was stupid. Are you mad because we lost?" He half nodded, giving me an incomplete answer.

"And you're mad that we lost because…we lost our money that you had earned?" He shook his head.

"Is it because I made you fight because I didn't just walk away?" My pawniard was apparently willing to be humble and pointed to himself for that fault, as if taking the blame.

"Salvic, I'm sorry, but I can't just _know_ what's bothering you. Could you at least _try_ to tell me what I did to make you so upset?"

He then struck his blades together to create sparks and set the carpet on fire.

Before it could of possibly exuded smoke, I had stamped it out with my shoes until I was certain that there was nothing left but a black spot and sat down on the bed to calm my heart rate. So it had something to do with fire but Salvic had made it clear that the magby was not the problem. Then, I had a bit of a crazy but valid thought. It honestly made no sense to me but I was willing to stab wildly with my guesses at this point.

"Salvic, are you mad at me because I couldn't protect you from the fire burst?"

"Pawniard" he said with a resounding sigh. I didn't know what he said but it was all the answer I needed.

"I'm sorry Salvic but how was I supposed to protect you from it? I couldn't have just ran out there and take the blow. You usually act on your own accord because you know strategy better than me. I couldn't have yelled for you to dodge the fire burst because it wouldn't have made any difference."

After I had said that, he was glaring at me with full distrust and malice; it startled me, although it was tame. He pointed at me and spoke some more in his native tongue, his tone at points sounding angry and sarcastic. By the time he was finished though, his tone had dropped to a quiet whisper with a hint of anguish. I couldn't tell what anything he said meant in words but I knew what he said in feeling. He was disappointed in me precisely because I didn't tell him to dodge. I had underestimated the strength of my pokémon and hadn't had an ounce of faith that he could have overcome the pain of his burn and dodge the fire attack if I simply told him to but it was because that I had tried to protect him in the first place that I had pegged the battle as a lost cause and him too weak in physical state and too defiant in mind for him to listen to me. I had hurt Salvic's trust in me not only as a trainer but possibly as a friend.

"Salvic. I'm so sorry. I didn't know you had that much faith in me," Why did it sound like I was just trying to cover up my mistake with a pathetic excuse?

"I honestly didn't know Salvic. I'm sorry. I promise you I won't make the same mistake again."

I felt as if I should have hugged him but I was afraid I would hurt myself by embracing his weaponized body. I settled on placing a hand on his shoulder to try and comfort him. He looked up at me and, while it wasn't incredibly drastic, I saw a bit of relief in his eyes. He shoved his emotions behind his face though and once again put on a mask of sternness. I took it as a sign of agreement between us and put on a relaxed smile, glad that we came to terms.

I took my hand off his shoulder and stood, noticing that it read nearly ten thirty in the evening on the bedside clock. It was probably too late to get anything from the cafeteria and I was too exhausted to go trekking out in the night for some fast food or something. Salvic seemed fine on food and energy levels, so I didn't worry about him. I sighed in defeat for my rumbling stomach and simply decided to fast until morning for breakfast. I had heard that food tasted twice as good when you were hungry, so that was a motivational thought. I decided to just take a shower and call it a night for this overall tiring day. I went into the bathroom, Salvic following curiously behind me and started off by washing my face. I was never big in the acne department but you could never be too careful. I would also have to shave a bit, as my beard and mustache was growing a little out of control. People always told me I looked older with my black hair and beard combo, so I tried to keep it to minimum stubble. It was after that that I ran into a problem. Salvic and I were both filthy, dirt (in his case, dried blood) caked our skin but there was only one tub available for use and one of us had to strip to avoid getting their clothes wet. I decided to not lose anymore dignity today and washed Salvic first, only going as far as taking off my shirt to avoid getting too wet. He disliked hot water and wouldn't cooperate with me unless it was to a minimum of lukewarm. I ignored his annoyed grunts when I hit a sore spot when washing him and the motivational sign saying to conserve water by bathing with your pokémon, then promptly kicked him out and closed the door behind him so I could shower in peace. He was still standing in the exact place I had left him when I got out but I avoided the moody glare he gave me and headed straight to my bag to change into something clean for tonight. Sleeping arrangements weren't an issue for us, as Salvic insisted to go inside his pokéball for the night, which left the bed all for myself. I drifted off to sleep as soon as I hit the covers and had an unusual dream about becoming the champion with nothing but steel pokémon at my side.


	6. An authors lament

Expect this chapter to be one long authors note and an important one at that. After some thought and going back and looking at my previous chapters, I realized I haven't been very fair to you guys. Aka, I acted like a complete asshat.

For those of you who don't know, which may be all of you, I didn't start this story on the best conditions. It was another week full of work and I was browsing the internet hot spots for something entertaining. I was unamused with what I had found, especially on FanFiction. So, with boredness penting up inside me, I woke up one day in the afternoon and decided, "I'm gonna write a drama story about pokémon!"

Then I wrote the first chapter of this on the same day. Once again, I'm an asshat.

I realized rather late my flaws about writing this story. It was intended to be a multi-chapter, emotion inducing, action packed story about a runaway douchebag just trying to find his place in life. Instead, I feel as if it's moving too fast to get attached too, the writing is hokey in many places and there are no defining elements to separate this story from the rest. The most suffering part was that I had no idea of what the ending was going to be, hadn't made a plan of how the story would progress, who the major characters would be, besides Sam and Salvic, and my basic plan was to just write without any clue about the importance of what I was writing about.

In short, I was so full of self-confidence that I went without worry about criticism and just thought the story would magically turn into a good piece of fiction. A good story doesn't work like that and that is what I couldn't figure out before it was too late and had already posted two or three chapters of this before realizing what a tough time you guys were having.

So to put it simply about this author's notes intention, this story is going on hiatus. Updates will be longer in exchange for the chapters being more in-depth. I want to have pride as a writer and make sure you guys are more or less enjoying this story. I may go back and rewrite the other chapters to improve on continuity and writing errors. I may also post some one-shots about other things so I don't feel pressured about this story being the only thing I have to write about. I'll also be sure to take this 'chapter 'down after I feel comfortable with the story's overall state. So until then… I don't know, go find other things to amuse you, reread the old chapters if you honestly like them that much or just stay off the internet. Go outside. Or don't.


End file.
